Valdosta Country Club: Main Course

The prolific southeastern-based architect Joe Lee, who worked with Dick Wilson until the elder architect’s death in 1965, built the first nine at Valdosta in southern Georgia in 1977. Four years later he added a second nine with the help of designer Rocky Roquemore. Bobby Weed, who was then the PGA Tour’s chief designer, added a third nine in 1988. Throughout 2023, Georgia-based architect Bill Bergin took the best portions of the original 18 along with a sliver of the Weed nine and re-combined it all into a new course that includes several newly created holes. Most of the course is routed through a core section of the club property with several coronas flaring out through the pines and the surrounding upscale neighborhood. The greens are much larger with more dynamic contour, and Bergin’s flat-bottomed bunkers bracket greens and set up ideal angles of approach. The transformation also included a six-hole short course, expanded practice area and new short game area.